The present invention relates to a solenoid operated hydraulic cartridge valve and, more specifically, to a solenoid coil directly mounted to a printed circuit board for controlling the hydraulic cartridge valve.
Hydraulic cartridge valves are commonly used in hydraulic systems for controlling the flow of hydraulic fluid through such systems in order to affect the operation of heavy machinery, such as construction machines, driven by a hydraulic system. Typically, a cartridge valve is moveably received within a bore in a manifold in fluid communication with the hydraulic system such that the bore serves as the housing for the valve. In a typical hydraulic system, a manifold contains several cartridge valves. Each cartridge valve is controlled by at least one solenoid coil, which is energized by a control system to shift the cartridge valve into one of a plurality of positions, such as an open position or a closed position. Some cartridge valves operate in an analog manner where the valve position is a linear function of the electrical signal applied.
Conventional control systems use cables, wire harnesses, and other types of hard wiring to electronically connect the solenoid coils to the controllers. These wire harnesses consist of multiple leads running to each coil. On a typical manifold with multiple cartridge valves, dozens of wires must run from the controller to the solenoid coils in order to effectively operate and control the cartridge valves. These cables are bulky and consume considerable physical space on a typical hydraulic powered machine. As a complicated system component, these cables and wire harnesses are costly and labor intense components to produce and suffer from poor reliability. Attempts to improve the reliability of wire harnesses lead to still greater cost increases.
It is therefore a principal object of this invention to provide a control system for hydraulic cartridge valves that conserves space and allows for greater control of the cartridge valves.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a system for the effective electrical connection of hydraulic cartridge valve solenoids at a reduced cost over methods of the present art.
A further object of this invention is to provide solenoid coils for controlling the cartridge valves that secure to a circuit board to allow electronic control of the cartridge valves.
Yet a further object of the present invention is to provide a method of electrically connecting hydraulic cartridge valves with improved reliability.
These and other objects will be apparent to those skilled in the art.